Hackathon to pick students’ brains for cyber solutions

The organisers of a new cyber security event hope to unlock the participants’ ethical hacking talents and boost the  UK’s digital defences.

Teaming up with experts at the Accelerator Network, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills is to hold a ‘hackathon’, which will take place over three days and feature 50 information security students confronting modern national and business infrastructures.

The event will take place in June, bringing together talented students from the top 13 universities in the UK, which are considered to be Academic Centres of Excellence in the field of cyber security.

Participants will collaborate on ideas with a purpose of finding solutions to complex issues. The Accelerator Network will provide professional advice and tutorials.

The mentoring will be available for all three days, urging participants to build applications to everyday security issues. The event will conclude with a pitching segment that will see teams present their solutions to investors, partners and industry leaders.

The Accelerator Network’s chair, Ian Merricks, commented:

“Cyber-security is the number one threat facing UK businesses and critical infrastructure providers. The real issue is that countermeasures are often developed by large teams bound by out-dated organisational structures, whereas attackers work together in disparate more flexible collectives.”

If events such as this hackathon are successful, the cyber professionals of tomorrow should be well equipped to deal with the security issues we face today. Businesses should already be looking at those with the knowledge to keep systems and data secure, and open up cyber security jobs to them. In the current climate, it is just the smart thing to do.